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Message: <blockquote data-quote="merelycompetent" data-source="post: 2903856" data-attributes="member: 33830">I have had to boot a small number of players over the years...Threatening another player with physical violence: Yup. Loved being a skinny nerd between two quarreling college linebackers (American football). Fortunately, I could act like I was crazier than both of them.Failing to show up for games: Gaming once a week, same day, same time, called each player mid-week to make sure there weren't any changes, and *still* didn't show up. After a month of no-shows, I stopped calling him. Then he showed up:Player: "I'm ready to play!Me: "Sorry, your character died two sessions ago from mummy rot, and his soul was eaten by a demon. You can go home now."Yes, I admit I didn't handle that one very well. I later apologized, in public, to him.Hostility to other players: I don't know why this one player decided that the husband-wife team at the table were his character's enemies, but he did. And went out of his way, in character, to continue the hostility. After about 8 sessions of this, with multiple attempts to get him to either change characters or change his attitude, I finally called him up and told him not to come any more. Later activity on a personal level leads me to think that it was more than just an attitude problem at the gaming table.Falling asleep during the game/constantly screwing over the other PCs in lousy grabs for personal power: Hated to boot this one. Gave him three chances across two campaigns, but he consistently went for the power grab at the expense of PCs, NPCs, and the campaign. It wouldn't have been a problem if I'd been running an evil campaign (likely the other PCs would've use charm, geas/quest, or similar magic to force his character to behave), but the player material handed out before character creation clearly said "Heroic Fantasy! Make a HERO!" Finally had to tell him that it wasn't working, that this wasn't the game for him.Never Did Anything - At All: This player never did anything with his character. And I mean ANYTHING. His character was an amnesiac half-celestial (with wings) who woke up in a crater on a battlefield, grievously wounded, surrounded by the slaughtered remains of gargoyles. He had the hilt of a broken sword in one gore-spattered hand (the blade was sticking out of the biggest gargoyle's head) and was wearing a rent breastplate (celestial armor, 1 hp left). He decided that his character had no curiosity, so never checked into why he was on that battlefield, why certain members of a religious order would always seek him out - while other religions avoided or were actively hostile. He never investigated where the shadowy assassins came from or why they were after him. He never followed up on the prophet's warning to him that his brother was in torment. ("I don't remember having a brother, so why should I care?") He never passed any information on to the other PCs. Ever. Kinda made it hard to not kill the PCs when one of them knows about the coming ambush but doesn't bother to tell anyone else. I finally told him he needed to leave the game. He refused. So I booted him.This last one led to me adding two rules for all players in my games:* No Passive Characters Allowed. If your character has no curiosity, no motive, or no drive, then he'll die of old age sitting in the tavern waiting for the adventure to hit him over the head and steal his money. Roll up a new character or find another game to play in.* If you have to leave the game for any reason, always do so with dignity and grace.</blockquote>

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